It's june berry month - the moon of shadberry fruit is newly new. Summer is begun, the days are at their longest, and the time is NOW for the beginnings of the fruit season!

Being smaller, berries ripen before big fruits like apples. Generally, the more northern varieties and species ripen sooner when planted south of their native range, believing the midsummer temperatures to be the early fall they're used to. One such example is 'honeyberry', Lonicera caerulea, a wild berry species from northern Eurasia. It has been widely cultivated there for many years and is beginning to make its way into forest gardens in our areas here. It's a honeysuckle family shrub growing to 6', and being from Siberia, is not tolerant of hot, dry places. It grows well in part sun and rich soil and ripens sour and sweet, long-blueberry-like fruit in late May and early June.

Ripening next are strawberries, garden and wild varieties alike, as well as 'false strawberry', which looks and tastes similar. Look for their three, toothed leaves, in meadows, fields and gardens. Her leaves, like her cousin raspberry, are high in vitamins and have many medicinal uses. Green, unripe strawberries make good and interesting pickles.

Next to ripen in the seasonal cycle, come mid june, are the long awaited, Gusher(TM)-like, purple and amazing June berries. Also known as shadbush, serviceberry and saskatoons, these native shrubby trees, Amalanchier sp., grew commonly in hedges, meadows and edges from the East coast through the Great Plains. Their blooming flowers in spring coincide with the runs of the mighty shad fish, hence their name. Gather the cherry/blueberry flavored shadberry when her fruits are dark red to purple, stuff your face then and there, delight in pies, juices, tarts, etc, or dry them for later as pemmican or dried fruit.

Now, in late June arrive the mulberries! They ripen over a wider window, having some variation between their individual trees. Many of the trees that grace our bike paths, farms, edges and sidewalks are the children or grandchildren of vast mulberry orchards planted in the last 2 centuries in the mill towns of the north east to grow their leaves (berries a bonus) to feed to silk worm caterpillars - their only food. Look for their ripe, dark purple / black fruit dropping down (put a tarp out, don't bother about the sandy ones) from branches with toothed, lobed, fig-like leaves. Don't eat them unripe, wait until they are sublime and dark, even if they taste semi-sweet when plump and white. Mulberries are common enough to recognize growing out of sidewalk cracks, victims of yearly weed whacking. Can you pull them out in spring or fall, and transplant them to a loving forever home where they can spread tall and wide?

Next month -- stay tuned for currants, bramble berries, gooseberries and some color in the wild cherries and early blueberries

Spring offers a rapid succession of wild foods with what seems like all too brief harvesting windows. I understand that the show must go on, and the green world will unfold as she may. Yet, as my spring time favorites sneak past their prime---dandelion greens, nettles, and japanese knotweed shoots---I reckon with the speed of seasonal change and already miss them. 


No time for grief though, for the great parade of edibles has just begun!  As one window of harvest closes, another opens just in time.  Here are three of my upcoming favorites. 


Black Locust Blossoms
Robinia psuedoacacia 

Breezes thick with the scent Black Locust blooms carry the seeds of next year’s dandelion.  Hanging heavy with clusters of edible flowers, Black Locust is a true late-spring delicacy. A strong infusion (pour boiling water over a jar stuffed with flowers, let steep for 6-8 hours) heavily sweetened with maple syrup, makes an other worldly dessert cordial. Freeze or refrigerate your cordial, otherwise you will end up with an exploded jar or fizzy, alcoholic beverage.  Russ Cohen, a prominent wild foods educator and writer recently shared his recipe for Black Locust fritters with me. You can also eat them raw in salads, stuffed in spring rolls, mixed in ice cream, baked into custards, cakes, and pasta sauces. Many blogs abound on the identification of black locust flowers, so check out a good one here before you leap! Don’t wait too long though, they are only in their peak form for 1-2 weeks depending on your town’s microclimate.  The trees in the Hilltowns (Goshen, Cummington, Worthington, etc.) just began blooming---though the heavy rains may have washed out their fragrance a bit.

 

Lamb's quarters 
Chenopodium album 


Lamb’s quarters, a cousin of quinoa, is another dear friend who is showing up in compost piles and farm fields every where, in prime harvest condition. Similar to spinach in texture and flavor, Lamb’s quarters delivers a hearty dose of vitamin A, C, B vitamins, and iron. When young and their stems break with ease, even up to a foot or more tall, the whole plant can be chopped, stalk and all, and sautéed with a bit of fat and touch of vinegar or lemon juice to maximize digestibility. Adding acid to vegetables generally increases the amount of calcium you absorb from your food by one third.  Today I had a simple breakfast of Lamb's quarters prepared this way, seasoned with salt and pepper with a couple of sunny side up eggs---delicious and nourishing! Once their stalks grow too tough to break easily, just pluck off the leaves and continue to enjoy them, as you would spinach, in casseroles, with eggs, or try this "massaged" greens salad:

 Marinated Greens Medley 
A raw salad best served after a period of marinating---at least 2 hours, overnight is better. The oils and acids help break down the plant cell walls so we can better access the vitamins/minerals in the greens. 


Coarsely hand shred or chop an assortment of wild greens: Lamb's quarters, Amaranth, Sheep Sorrel, and Purslane. to equal about 12 cups of greens. 

Make a dressing with 1/3c. extra virgin olive oil, 1/4c. apple cider vinegar, 1 garlic clove, 1 bunch fresh cilantro, 1 tsp fresh ground coriander, 1/4tsp sea salt. Finely minced garlic and cilantro and add to the rest of ingredients, or blend it all together in a food processor. 


Massage the dressing (add as much or as little as you like) into the greens so that each surface is coated. Let this salad marinate and serve!


Lamb’s quarters are late bloomers compared to the other spring greens, yet their edibility extends far into the growing season, bearing food (leaves then seeds) until the first hard frost. Grab a taste now and compare their changing flavor and texture through the season.  Check out this site on Lamb's quarters I.D. with plenty of helpful photos and interesting charts!